Abingdon Press

Abingdon Press
Parent companyUnited Methodist Publishing House
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNashville, Tennessee, US
Imprints
  • Dimensions for Living
  • Kingswood Books
Official websitewww.abingdonpress.com

Abingdon Press is the book publishing arm of the United Methodist Publishing House[1] which publishes sheet music, ministerial resources, Bible-study aids, and other items, often with a focus on Methodism and Methodists.

History

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Abingdon Press was begun in the early 1900s by the Methodist Church, with headquarters in New York City. The name of the imprint is a reference to the town of Abingdon, Maryland, location of the Methodist university Cokesbury College.[2]

In 1923 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South adopted the name Cokesbury for its own publishing concern, with headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.[2] When the northern and southern branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church reunified in 1939, the name Abingdon-Cokesbury was chosen as the name of publishing house of the unitary Methodist Church and Nashville was chosen as the headquarters.[2]

This name remained in use until 1954, when a return was made to the name Abingdon Press, with the church's retail division for its publishing enterprises assuming the name Cokesbury.[2] In 1965 the joint Abingdon Press and the associated Cokesbury retail shops employed more than 2,000 people.[3] In 1968, W. T. Handy, Jr. was hired as their first African-American executive.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Abingdon Press: About Us Archived April 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine accessed April 3, 2010
  2. ^ a b c d Alan K. Waltz, "Abingdon Press," Archived 2017-03-07 at the Wayback Machine in A Dictionary for United Methodists. New York: Abingdon Press, 1991. Cited in United Methodist Church: Glossary: Abingdon Press, www.umc.org/.
  3. ^ Leland D. Case, "Origins of Methodist Publishing in America," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 59, no. 1 (First Quarter 1965), pg. 27. In JSTOR.
  4. ^ https://www.smu.edu/perkins/news/news_archives/archives_2018/2018-three-bishops-of-the-umc
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